Kerry Hecht

I got sick in December 2020 when Covid was in full swing. I was perfectly fine – completely normal. About halfway through a meeting, I started getting very tired and got terrible chills. I assumed, like everyone did then, that I had Covid. When I went to the urgent care to get tested – it was negative, and they sent me home. I loaded up on aspirin and was fine – actually, for a few days. Then, it returned. With a high fever, chills, and vomiting, I returned to the urgent care to get tested again for COVID-19. I was still negative. Somehow, I got more aspirin and some ginger ale in me, and I proceeded about my day.

By the end of the day, I couldn’t keep the fever or the vomiting away, and I was having intense abdominal pain. At this point, I assumed my appendix was the problem, so I went to a hospital-affiliated urgent care. They immediately sent me to the actual emergency room, and things got crazy from there. My blood pressure tanked, and I really only remember the doctor screaming in my face that I needed to get my blood pressure up. I remember thinking that it seemed like that was his job at that point. Fast forward to being in the hospital with sepsis from strep b and pneumonia. (Sepsis and Group B Streptococcus, Sepsis and Pneumonia) I asked the doctor if I was going to die, and he said, “You’re very sick.” I was out about a week later and spent the next three months recovering. They never figured out what the exact source was. I was, however, diagnosed with a compromised immune system a few years later. (Sepsis and Impaired Immune System)

This past week (January 2024), I had an endoscopy with no reported issues. About a week later, having just landed in New York City for vacation, I got a very high fever and chills and started vomiting. This time, I knew what was happening and didn’t waste any time getting to the hospital. I spent 4 days there on IV antibiotics – avoiding a second round of sepsis.

I am a 50-year-old mother of a human and five pets, and I am the CEO and founder of several market research agencies.